Volume 116 · 719
Public Law 107–196
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to ensure that chaplains killed in the line of duty receive public safety officer death benefits.
Approved June 24, 2002
Statutory text
An Act
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to ensure that chaplains killed in the line of duty receive public safety officer death benefits.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
Mychal Judge Police and Fire Chaplains Public Safety Officers’ Benefit Act of 2002.
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Mychal Judge Police and Fire Chaplains Public Safety Officers’ Benefit Act of 2002”.
SEC. 2. BENEFITS FOR CHAPLAINS.
In General.—
Section 1204 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796b) is amended—
by redesignating paragraphs (2) through (7) as (3) through (8), respectively;
by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
“(2) ‘chaplain’ includes any individual serving as an officially recognized or designated member of a legally organized volunteer fire department or legally organized police department, or an officially recognized or designated public employee of a legally organized fire or police department who was responding to a fire, rescue, or police emergency;”; and
in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (8), as redesignated by paragraph (1), by inserting after “firefighter,” the following: “as a chaplain,”.
Eligible Beneficiaries.—
Section 1201(a) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 3796(a)) is amended—
in paragraph (3), by striking “or” at the end;
by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5); and
by inserting after paragraph (3) the following new paragraph:
“(4) if there is no surviving spouse or surviving child, to the individual designated by such officer as beneficiary under such officer’s most recently executed life insurance policy, provided that such individual survived such officer; or”.
Effective date.—
The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on September 11, 2001, and shall apply to injuries or deaths that occur in the line of duty on or after such date.
Approved June 24, 2002.